U.S. lines for iPhone X long, but Apple Stores claim to have 'enough' -- for now

Lines at the U.S. Apple Stores mirror those Thursday's queues at international venues, and AppleInsider has learned that stores typically have well over 300 units on hand to sell, and in some cases, nearly a thousand.

Twitter user and blogger "Dominicanabroad" posted a video of the second line at the World Trade Center Apple Store. A first line was inside the store at 7 a.m.

Apple also offered its own collection of images from the first iPhone X sales around the world, including London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sydney.

AppleInsider has queried local locations, and sources not authorized to speak for the company say that there are "hundreds" of iPhone X ready for purchase. All the stores we asked said that they had "enough" phones to slake the appetites for the device for the people currently in line -- but that it wouldn't last through the day, or more likely, to 10 a.m.

All of our sources at Apple Retail said that they have "far more" of the iPhone X for today's release then they had of the iPhone 7 Plus went it on sale in 2016.

Similar queries to corporate-owned carrier retail stores showed just a handful in total of the iPhone X in stock for sale on Friday morning.

Wow, that's crazy! Samsung would kill to have this kind of attention.Which phone company hired posers to fake long lines few years back? Was it LG or Samsung?

Yeah people can kick Apple all they want...what other product from any other company continues to form very long lines year after year?
That was Samsung that did the fake lines. Only Samsung would do something like that.

So I would love to see some investigative journalism here to find out what’s really going on. How could analysts and pundits be so wrong? Sure, they’re usually wrong about Apple but this is stupendously embarrassing for every prognosticator out there. Even 9to5Mac bought into the story. Recent articles all but confirmed that there were massive production issues with the iPhone X. Were the analysts played like a fiddle by Apple? Did the tech media actively try to scuttle the launch? Is Apple lying about demand? Apple’s guidance for Q1 is off the charts. If they’re lying about demand then they’re lying about their guidance and that would mean big trouble.

My personal opinion is that the tech media willingly bought into the ‘failure’ meme and were played like a fiddle by Apple.

So I would love to see some investigative journalism here to find out what’s really going on. How could analysts and pundits be so wrong? Sure, they’re usually wrong about Apple but this is stupendously embarrassing for every prognosticator out there. Even 9to5Mac bought into the story. Recent articles all but confirmed that there were massive production issues with the iPhone X. Were the analysts played like a fiddle by Apple? Did the tech media actively try to scuttle the launch? Is Apple lying about demand? Apple’s guidance for Q1 is off the charts. If they’re lying about demand then they’re lying about their guidance and that would mean big trouble.

My personal opinion is that the tech media willingly bought into the ‘failure’ meme and were played like a fiddle by Apple.

What’s your opinion?

Agreed, when Tim Cook was asked about the shortage he did not confirm or deny it, as if he wanted the uncertainty to continue.

So I would love to see some investigative journalism here to find out what’s really going on. How could analysts and pundits be so wrong? Sure, they’re usually wrong about Apple but this is stupendously embarrassing for every prognosticator out there. Even 9to5Mac bought into the story. Recent articles all but confirmed that there were massive production issues with the iPhone X. Were the analysts played like a fiddle by Apple? Did the tech media actively try to scuttle the launch? Is Apple lying about demand? Apple’s guidance for Q1 is off the charts. If they’re lying about demand then they’re lying about their guidance and that would mean big trouble.

My personal opinion is that the tech media willingly bought into the ‘failure’ meme and were played like a fiddle by Apple.

What’s your opinion?

I agree with you for the most part but, 'lying about their guidance' - not a chance.

So much stock, now why is the phone I stayed up till 3am to order coming after November 17th?

I'm wondering the same thing. Especially as reports say phones are being shipped earlier than promised, but mine still shows a ship date of Nov 17-24. And I stayed up all night just to have the Apple Store App be unavailable to me for 25 minutes.

There were lines like this in 2007 for the iPhone 1 yet it took Apple 74 days to sell just 1 million of them. But in Q1 Apple will be selling nearly 1 million iPhones per DAY. Interesting that there is such a disconnect between lines and sales.

So much stock, now why is the phone I stayed up till 3am to order coming after November 17th?

It’s simple. There aren’t that many stores, especially stand alone stores outside of malls where lines works better than in a mall where sometimes it isn’t even allowed. so even a thousand per store is much smaller than the millions of people who preordered at the exact same time.

Funny that they have a line in Tampa. I was in Bradenton last week (doing a rec baseball tournament). During the preorders day and coming back from playing (so more than 16 hours after), I would have been able to get order an iPhone X and get it on release day, which back home it was 5-6 weeks.

So I would love to see some investigative journalism here to find out what’s really going on. How could analysts and pundits be so wrong? Sure, they’re usually wrong about Apple but this is stupendously embarrassing for every prognosticator out there. Even 9to5Mac bought into the story. Recent articles all but confirmed that there were massive production issues with the iPhone X. Were the analysts played like a fiddle by Apple? Did the tech media actively try to scuttle the launch? Is Apple lying about demand? Apple’s guidance for Q1 is off the charts. If they’re lying about demand then they’re lying about their guidance and that would mean big trouble.

My personal opinion is that the tech media willingly bought into the ‘failure’ meme and were played like a fiddle by Apple.

What’s your opinion?

Agreed, when Tim Cook was asked about the shortage he did not confirm or deny it, as if he wanted the uncertainty to continue.

That’s a pretty liberal editorialization of his non-statement.

Apple has pretty much the same non-answer to any question about strategy, operations, plans or anything else.